This week, AusDoc reported that the Federal Government decided to bypass the safety concerns of the PBAC, TGA and Medical Services Advisory Committee and directly fund pharmacy consults and scripts for hormonal contraception and uncomplicated UTIs.

We have now been given an explanation. As you will see, it’s to do with it being designated a trial, albeit one involving nearly a million women.

As most readers will know when it comes to the funding of long consults, creating new MBS consult items is a painful, time-consuming process that requires robust evidence of cost, benefit and safety.

For pharmacists, however, the government has not bothered with that bureaucratic inconvenience. It is not bothering with the MBS at all and is now paying a $38 non MBS rebate for the pharmacist consults where prescribing decisions will be made.